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Saturday, December 31, 2011

Mad Men is an American dramatic television series created and produced by Matthew Weiner. The series airs on Sunday evenings on the American cable network AMC and is produced by Lionsgate Television. It premiered on July 19, 2007, and completed its fourth season on October 17, 2010. Each season has consisted of 13 episodes. The fifth season is scheduled to premiere on March 16, 2012.

Mad Men is set in the 1960s, initially at the fictional Sterling Cooper advertising agency on Madison Avenue in New York City, and later at the newly created firm of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce. The focal point of the series is Don Draper (Jon Hamm), creative director at Sterling Cooper and a founding partner at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, and the people in his life, both in and out of the office. As such, it regularly depicts the changing moods and social mores of 1960s America.

Mad Men has received critical acclaim, particularly for its historical authenticity and visual style, and has won multiple awards, including fifteen Emmys and four Golden Globes. It is the first basic cable series to win the Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series, winning it in each of its first four seasons in 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011

VIDEO: Mad Men Tribute - "The Infanta" by The Decemberists - A Mad Men montage featuring the best moments of the fourth season, from the first up to the tenth episode. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdLc3blCOLY

"I am on a drug. It's called 'Charlie Sheen.' It's not available because if you try it once, you will die. Your face will melt off and your children will weep over your exploded body."

- Charlie Sheen

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"There were points in my life where I felt oddly irresistible to women. I'm not in that state now, and that makes me sad."

- Jack Nicholson

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The open road, the path of greatness / It's at your fingers / Go be the one that keeps on fighting / Go be the stranger / Just put your foot in front' the other / Crow like the rooster / We are allowed to get us something / Free as a danger

“Its been a real Disney weekend…A girl married a prince and a bad guy died in the end... “

– Various social network posts concerning the weekend wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton (Friday, April 29, 2011) and the official announcement on the death of Osama bin Laden (Sunday, May 1, 2011)

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Michael J. Fox bout to be Michael J. f**ked up in a minute!! Shaky motha f**kers like that, ya know little kids and s**t, old people, motha f**kers who can't defend themselves, and you. That's perfect. You two face off, that s**t is even steven.

– Leon Black to Larry David on why he shouldn't confront Michael J. Fox about his stumping in the night and why Larry should in "Larry vs. Michael J. Fox”, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Season 8

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If you make yourself more than just a man, if you devote yourself to an ideal... you become something else entirely. A legend, Mr. Wayne, a legend.

- Ra's al Ghul, Batman: The Dark Knight Rises Teaser Trailer

VIDEO: The Dark Knight Rises - Official Teaser Trailer [HD]

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“You can’t buy it back — you can’t buy your privacy back.” - Daniel Craig on The Kardashian family - “…‘Ooh I want to be alone.’ F—- you. We’ve been in your living room. We were at your birth. You filmed it for us and showed us the placenta and now you want some privacy?”

Tyrone Edmund Power, Jr. (May 5, 1914 – November 15, 1958), usually credited as Tyrone Power and known sometimes as Ty Power, was an American film and stage actor who appeared in dozens of films from the 1930s to the 1950s, often in swashbuckler roles or romantic leads such as in The Mark of Zorro, Blood and Sand, The Black Swan, Prince of Foxes, The Black Rose, and Captain from Castile.

Though renowned for his dark, classically handsome looks that made him a matinee idol from his first film appearance, Power played a wide range of roles, from film leading man to light comedy. In the 1950s, he began placing limits on the number of films he would make in order to have time for the stage. He received his biggest accolades as a stage actor in John Brown's Body and Mister Roberts. Power died from a heart attack at the age of 44.

Power went to Hollywood in 1936. The director Henry King was impressed with his looks and poise, and he insisted that Power be tested for the lead role in Lloyd's of London, a role thought already to belong to Don Ameche. Despite Darryl F. Zanuck's reservations, he decided to go ahead and give Power the role, once King and Fox editor, Barbara McLean, convinced him that Power had a greater screen presence than Ameche. Power was fourth billed in the movie, but he had by far the most screen time of any actor. He walked into the premiere of the movie an unknown, and he walked out a star, which he stayed for the remainder of his career.

Power racked up hit after hit from 1936 until 1943, when his career was interrupted for military service. In these years, he starred in romantic comedies such as Thin Ice and Day-Time Wife; in dramas such as Suez, Blood and Sand, Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake,The Rains Came, and In Old Chicago; in the musicals, Alexander's Ragtime Band, Second Fiddle, and Rose of Washington Square; in the westerns, Jesse James (1939) and Brigham Young; in the war films, Yank in the R.A.F. and This Above All; and, of course, the swashbucklers, The Mark of Zorro and The Black Swan. Jesse James was a very big hit at the box office, but it did receive some criticism for fictionalizing and glamorizing the famous outlaw. The movie was shot in and around the Pineville, Missouri area and was Power's first location shoot and his first Technicolor movie. Before his career was over, he would have filmed a total of 16 movies in color, including the movie he was filming when he died. He was loaned out once, for MGM for 1938's Marie Antoinette. Darryl F. Zanuck was angry that MGM used Fox's biggest star in what was, despite billing, a supporting role, and he vowed to never again loan him out. Though Power's services were requested for the role of Ashley Wilkes in Gone with the Wind, Joe Bonaparte in Golden Boy, Paris in King's Row, by Harry Cohn for several films throughout the years, and by Norma Shearer herself for her planned production of The Last Tycoon to play Irving Thalberg, Zanuck stuck by his original decision.

He was named the second biggest box office draw in 1939, surpassed by only Mickey Rooney

Last weekend, I saw the latest installment to the Mission: Impossible film series, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol and must say its better than I thought it would be….However, I feel Mission: Impossible III is the best in the series. That movie had more of a sense of urgency for the main character, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and dealt with his own personal life vs. his life as a secret agent. Plus it had the best villain in the series so far, Owen Davian (Philip Seymour Hoffman).

Only a few questions/comments this time around….

1) Why wasn’t the villain given a more distinguishable look? Most villains in spy movies are sooo over the top sometimes but it would have been cool to have the villain in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol with one-arm or a scar or a patch over his eye…something to make him more menacing… AND that goes for his goon too…Put some metal in his mouth or something!!

2) Why is the locale and scenes soooo limited to the Middle East and Russia? Couldn’t we get a trip to the Alps or the Pacific Islands as well? Not that it was bad, its just I was looking forward to more scenery…felt like I was watching an episode of 24…everything happening in a day and in the same place.

3) And speaking of 24, the actor, Anil Kapoor, who plays the wealthy target of the team Brij Nath also played the character, President Omar Hassan in 24. Had much respect for his performance on that show and other movies he's been in…but in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol he is played like a real chump…any new actor could have played an oversexed, arrogant billionaire playboy but Anil’s performance or just being in this role just seemed out of place, especially for such a great actor who has been doing movies since the 1980s.

4) And, of course, critics have been talking about the plot with the Russian missiles and the goal of the villains to start a nuclear war between the U.S. and Russia…ummm, the Cold War has been over for a while guys…Not unless the writers and producers know something we don’t….

5) Simon Pegg’s character Benji Dunn came very close to becoming annoying…and not good annoying but Joe Pesci (Leo Getz) Lethal Weapon 3 bad annoying…but he eventually tone it down a bit as the movie progressed…

6) Any mission that agent Jane Carter (Paula Patton) is accepting, I will accept also…

7) Great job to director Brad Bird for this being his first live-action film.

8) At one point, I was beginning to wonder Where the hell is Ving Rhames? He’s been in every Mission Possible movie up to this point but eventually they do address that later…as well as other minor things that I began to question….Great ending and very exceptional way they cleared up things in the last few minutes….

Friday, December 30, 2011

Here, submitted for and despite your approval, are my favorite and/or most listened to songs of 2011. Some of them are new, while other songs are a bit older that I either discovered or re-discovered, that is, songs that either grew on me from albums of previous years or I had not listened to in a long while or music that just fit a certain mood for me during the certain points in time of my life throughout the past year.. – I’ve also posted a selection of song videos that I feel sums up my personal musicality during the past year among humanity….

Now, The Kingsington Post Playlsit 2011 in order of titles alphabetically…..

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

The Lord of the Rings is an epic film trilogy consisting of three fantasy adventure films based on the three-volume book of the same name by English author J. R. R. Tolkien. The films are The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Two Towers (2002) and The Return of the King (2003).

The films were directed by Peter Jackson and distributed by New Line Cinema. Considered to be one of the biggest and most ambitious movie projects ever undertaken, with an overall budget of $285 million, the entire project took eight years, with the filming for all three films done simultaneously and entirely in Jackson's native New Zealand. Each film in the trilogy also had Special Extended Editions, released on DVD a year after the theatrical releases. While the films follow the book's general storyline, they do omit some of the plot elements from the novel and include some additions to and other deviations from the source material.

Set in the fictional world of Middle-earth, the three films follow the hobbit Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood) as he and a Fellowship embark on a quest to destroy the One Ring, and thus ensure the destruction of its maker, the Dark Lord Sauron. The Fellowship becomes divided and Frodo continues the quest together with his loyal companion Sam (Sean Astin) and the treacherous Gollum (Andy Serkis). Meanwhile, the wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen) and Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen), heir in exile to the throne of Gondor, unite and rally the Free Peoples of Middle-earth, who are ultimately victorious in the War of the Ring.

The trilogy was a great financial success, with the films collectively being the sixth highest-grossing film series of all-time (behind Harry Potter, James Bond, Star Wars, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Shrek). The films were critically acclaimed and heavily awarded, winning 17 out of 30 Academy Awards nominated in total. The final film in the trilogy, The Return of the King, won all 11 of the Academy Awards for which it was nominated, tying it with Ben-Hur and Titanic for most Academy Awards received for a film. The trilogy received wide praise for the innovative special effects, both practical and digital.

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

It's a Wonderful Life is an American Christmas drama film released on December 20, 1946; Produced and directed by Frank Capra and based on the short story "The Greatest Gift" written by Philip Van Doren Stern.

The film stars James Stewart as George Bailey, a man whose imminent suicide on Christmas Eve brings about the intervention of his guardian angel, Clarence Odbody (Henry Travers). Clarence shows George all the lives he has touched and the contributions he has made to his community.

Despite initially being considered a box office flop due to high production costs and stiff competition at the time of its release, the film has come to be regarded as a classic and a staple of Christmas television around the world. Theatrically, the film's break-even point was actually $6.3 million, approximately twice the production cost, a figure it never came close to achieving in its initial release. An appraisal in 2006 reported: "Although it was not the complete box-office failure that today everyone believes ... it was initially a major disappointment and confirmed, at least to the studios, that Capra was no longer capable of turning out the populist features that made his films the must-see, money-making events they once were."

It's a Wonderful Life was nominated for five Oscars without winning any, although the film has since been recognized by the American Film Institute as one of the 100 best American films ever made, and placed number one on their list of the most inspirational American films of all time.

Watched X-Men: First Class a few months ago and have been meaning to post my thoughts about it. Though I liked the movie as a stand-alone interpretation of the X-Men story (and probably one of the best superhero films ever produced), I don’t think it adds up chronologically to the rest of the movie franchise or even historically (someone needs to either watch the TV show, Madmen or read up on their 1960’s history).

At some points I found it hilarious (the funniest was that Mystique and Charles Xavier were BFFs?? And living in the mansion???)

Here are few questions that I start to bring up while watching it and moments thereafter:

1. Who was Xavier’s mother? How did he inherit or have all the money to afford that castle? And was he suppose to be English?

2. How did Erik escape from Sebastian Shaw during the years of torture?

3. Wait…Whose movie is this about anyway? Last I heard it was called X-Men, not Magneto Men but yet Erik is allowed to make a grand speech while Charles takes a bullet for good measure….The title of this movie should have been X-Men: The Rise of Magneto.

4. Not to sound chauvinistic, but was there any women working for the CIA in 1962 as a agent or spy? At what level is she to call the director directly while he’s in a meeting with the military and others? And also wearing short mini-skirts in 1962 (this is again, 1962 and not 1969)….

8. What was Shaw’s endgame? Destruction? Take over? Burning down the White House?

9. While shooting at Shaw at the CIA compound a guy just happens to have Bazooka. Who brings a Bazooka to a gun fight?

10. Who was the dude with the power to control the wind? Storm’s father???

11. Why did the only Black guy in the movie get killed…but the Red devil guy is running around killing everybody?

12. Why did the Russians make the helmet for Shaw in the first place?

13. Ummm, not really a question but….that girl with the wings is NOT the real Angel!!

14. Uh…I thought Alex Summers was Scott’s little brother and not the other way around???

15. How did the United States and Russia agree to attack the mutants so quickly when they refused to agree on the missile blockade….and even that went back and forth for 13 days…plus, are the writers saying both Kennedy and Kruschev were mutant haters? That they ordered the assault on these people on the island? Did they even know what a mutant was/is...?

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Check out this video that tries unsuccessfully to explain and connect all the X-Men movies and related films:

Christopher Nolan attempts an epic task with his dream-based film but its accomplishment hinges on the world in which it inhabits.

Was it all a dream? Or just a reflection of a distorted reality…slightly bent?

Christopher Nolan’s Inception is the sum of humanity’s most shared in-between life-to-death experience. No one can remember being born; Very few has ever come back from the dead and live to tell about it. But everyone eventually sleep and, therefore, dream. Inceptionpresents no exception to that rule. In this reality, dreams, may well be, the stuff of life.

Some viewers of the film have called Inception a “masterpiece”, while others, “visually stunning”. Critics and moviegoers alike have applauded the mere daring of such a creative undertaking.

I, for one, must say that it is, for lack of a better word, interesting.

So far, my favorite movies by Nolan, are Memento, Batman Begins and The Prestige. While, to me, his most popular movie to date, Batman: The Dark Knight was too quick in its edits and did not include the nonlinear Nolan-style from scene to scene which was completely obvious in comparison to its predecessor Batman Begins. Nolan was out of his usual element with doing such a straight, blockbuster of a movie. (What? No flashbacks? No out-of-sync time-lines?)

My opinion is that Heath Ledger’s untimely death changed the way that movie was edited and expectation demanded a “summer blockbuster” and Nolan complied. It was a huge hit but not a Nolan-styled movie. For this, I cannot say I hate Dark Knight but neither can I say I love it. I will say I’ve seen it several times to get at the heart of Nolan's vision and that itself speaks for his gift. His movies make the viewer think, try to understand it and/or dissect it. Thus is the way I felt about Inception; it’s not a “love it or hate it” movie, it’s a motion picture work of art, whether you care or do not.

Then again, there are several questions lingering within Inception from scene to scene.

Such as, was it all a dream? Maybe.

Another question I pose: How can you use machines to put a dreamer to sleep within a dream of a dream?

This brings up the fact that there are two forms of Science Fiction/Fantasy storytelling difficult to convey: Time-Travel and Dream-Worlds. Both are not easy to accomplish if one point of the story is not covered. For example: In Back To The Future when Marty McFly saw himself at different points in time and could not prevent the other from accomplishing their missions or in Nightmare on Elm Street when someone falls asleep and Freddy Kruegar is in complete control of their dream world. With Inception, the effort is hampered by the fact that there is no origin or simple base story to be your guide through the twists and turns of the movie.

Was this “entering” of one’s dream a gift? A power? A scientific experiment only a chosen few are allowed to master?
And, also, what era are we to assume the “outside” world takes place? Past, present or future? No one will ever know because Nolan never explains it.
I would have appreciated some foundation given the fact that this journey is new to audiences in general.
When you watch a James Bond or Mission: Impossible movie, you have a preconceived notion of spy movies, though they may be different in their styles and delivery, you eventually come into a Jason Bourne or any other spy movie with some sort of expectation and your mind is pretty much on auto-pilot not unless there is a unexpected twist along the way.

Inception feels not so much like a fresh start but more like starting in a story’s middle with no beginning and no ending. Just know that you’re here and really don’t know how you got here.

The lyrics to Once In A Lifetime by the Talking Heads come to mind:And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack
And you may find yourself in another part of the world
And you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile
And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife
And you may ask yourself: “Well...How did I get here?Leonardo DiCaprio’s character Dominic Cobb addresses that in the movie to explain to student Ariadne (Ellen Page) what it feels like when you fall asleep and dream. No point of origin. You’re just there.
Did Nolan want audiences to feel that way too? You’re here. Enjoy the ride. Destination unknown.
To take us on this journey are a top-notch ensemble of actors: DiCaprio, Ellen Page, Marion Cotillard, Cillian Murphy, Ken Watanabe, Tom Berenger, Dileep Rao, Pete Postlethwaite, Lukas Haas and Michael Caine. Their performances are all played well with Tom Hardy and Joseph Gordon-Leavitt’s characters being the great action heroes of the story.

Pivotal scenes and camera angles are also excellent and reminiscent to another great director, Stanley Kubrick. I noticed this even in the first set of trailers. Most recently, I learned that the Christopher Nolan was influenced greatly by Kubrick, so I approach this film with that in mind. By my estimation, I do believe Kubrick would have been proud of Inception with its style and cinematography as a reminder to his approach to film making.
There are very few directors like Nolan and Kubrick that want the movie audience to be a participant of their films no matter how uncomfortable visually or mentally it can be. (A Clockwork Orange, anyone?)

Finally, for our viewing pleasure there were some noteworthy points of reference Nolan may or may not have intended to present:

1) Édith Piaf's song "Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien" plays in various scenes. Actress Marion Cotillard who plays Mallorie "Mal" Cobb, Dominic Cobb's deceased wife, also starred as Piaf in 2007 film about her life, La Vie en rose.2) On a somewhat lighter note, there is a scene with DiCaprio where his character Cobb is trying to talk someone down from leaping to their death. I could only be reminded of him doing the same thing in Titanic over 10 years ago as the doomed character, Jack Dawson calming down Rose (Kate Winslet) from jumping off the edge of the ship. That effort doesn’t bode so well this time.

Besides the loops and turns of this film, moviegoers are definitely in for a treat. Nolan has done it again visually but making it all work as a story only distracts slightly.

Then again, not unless it was all a dream. At which point, the story doesn’t matter and the scope of Inception can be taken in for all its daring.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

The attack on Pearl Harbor (called Hawaii Operation or Operation AI by the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters (Operation Z in planning) and the Battle of Pearl Harbor) was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941 (December 8 in Japan). The attack was intended as a preventive action in order to keep the U.S. Pacific Fleet from interfering with military actions the Empire of Japan was planning in Southeast Asia against overseas territories of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the United States.

The base was attacked by 353 Japanese fighters, bombers and torpedo planes in two waves, launched from six aircraft carriers. All eight U.S. Navy battleships were damaged, with four being sunk. All but two of the eight were raised, repaired and returned to service later in the war. The Japanese also sank or damaged three cruisers, three destroyers, an anti-aircraft training ship,[nb 2] and one minelayer. One hundred eighty-eight U.S. aircraft were destroyed; 2,402 Americans were killed and 1,282 wounded. The power station, shipyard, maintenance, and fuel and torpedo storage facilities, as well as the submarine piers and headquarters building (also home of the intelligence section) were not attacked. Japanese losses were light: 29 aircraft and five midget submarines lost, and 65 servicemen killed or wounded. One Japanese sailor was captured.

The attack came as a profound shock to the American people and led directly to the American entry into World War II in both the Pacific and European theaters. The following day (December 8) the United States declared war on Japan. Domestic support for isolationism, which had been strong, disappeared. Clandestine support of Britain (for example the Neutrality Patrol) was replaced by active alliance. Subsequent operations by the U.S. prompted Germany and Italy to declare war on the U.S. on December 11, which was reciprocated by the U.S. the same day.

There were numerous historical precedents for unannounced military action by Japan. However, the lack of any formal warning, particularly while negotiations were still apparently ongoing, led President Franklin D. Roosevelt to proclaim December 7, 1941, "a date which will live in infamy".

About Me

As an illustrator, writer, poet and photographer in Chicago, Illinois, Torrence King has been published both professionally and independently since 1991. King has illustrated and created dozens of comics, graphic novels and characters and has written over 100 poems, plays and stories. A former radio show host in the late 90’s, King has been profiled on several radio stations and featured in the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times and Chicago Defender. King also created, Lifeforce Comics, one of the first comic books to address and tackle Drug Abuse and the HIV/AIDS crisis back in 1992 for the Chicago Board of Education. A sought after speaker, King has also taught seminars on publishing, sequential art history, graphic art and contemporary music history. Shifting to part-time photography and management in 2007, King has been instrumental in the development of both professional and aspiring models and artists to a broader audience. For more information, commission rates, published work, contact Torrence King by email: torrenceking2000@hotmail.com